


We're here for the PLOT, damnit!

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: We Write the Stories We Think We Deserve [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, F/M, M/M, Open Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-05-30 14:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6428446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five Dragons got their name from Jack’s guitar, a five-string he literally dug out of the trash when he was ten. It was at least twenty years old, painted the most tacky purple in the world, and according to Crow it still smelled like garbage thirteen years later. Jack called it The Dragon.</p><p> </p><p>My first work in a series of Yu-Gi-Oh music AUs that nobody asked for but secretly wanted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Prologue**

 

The screams of fans still ringing in their ears, Five Dragons steps into their dressing room, wiping their foreheads with towels emblazoned with their band name, and all four of them head straight for the water bottles.

“That was amazing,” Crow pants, crushing his empty water bottle in his fist.

Aki tosses her towel aside and flops into a makeup chair. “I’ll be lucky if my voice comes back in the next _week_ ,” she says hoarsely, but her smile betrays no pain. “Seven encores!”

Yusei and Jack are still guzzling water, but they raise their fists in victory when Crow and Aki cheer.

Saiga, their manager and ever the killjoy, enters the room with a frown. “That would’ve been perfect if we hadn’t gone through five guitars and _twelve drumsticks_.”

Crow hoots and tosses something at Saiga’s head. He catches it and flashes Crow an incredulous look. “Seriously?!” He demands, holding up the end of the broken drumstick from the last set. “Where were you keeping that?”

“It was in my hand, bro,” Crow says innocently.

Jack dumps the last half of his second water bottle over his head and blinks water out of his eyes. “So what if we tore some strings and broke some sticks? We just sold out the Tokyo Dome, I think we can afford to replace it all.”

“Not the point,” Saiga starts, but he’s interrupted when Bruno, their head of their press team, knocks on the door.

“We need some photos for social media,” Bruno says, raising his camera.

Saiga leaves, shooting the band a ‘this isn’t over’ look. Bruno snaps some pictures of Yusei leaning back on the sofa with his eyes shut, a smile on his face. He gets one of Jack, still dripping from the water bottle, taking a selfie for his own Instagram account. Crow poses with his mountain of broken drumsticks, flashing a peace sign. Bruno takes one of Aki, still slumped in the makeup chair, with an ice pack pressed to her flushed cheeks and examining a cut on her finger from the strings of her bass. Then he takes some group shots. Posed on the sofa, leaning on each other, big smiles on their faces. Then the group heads to the showers and changes into their post-concert outfits—soft, black sweatpants and white t-shirts with their logo emblazoned in red across their chests. The last picture Bruno takes is of the band on stage in the empty stadium, their arms draped over each other’s shoulders, lights at their backs.

The foursome leave the stadium at 3:20 AM, high-fiving the hardcore fans that waited for them by the exit, and dash on to their tour bus. Saiga tells the driver to head off, and as soon as the bus starts to move he’s back to his lecture.

“It was a great concert,” he says, “But seriously, playing hard doesn’t have to mean breaking things. Maybe during your break you guys can work on treating your instruments more gently.”

Aki sticks her tongue out at him when he turns his back, and the four of them exchange amused looks. They all know what’ll be happening on their break and none of them have plans for instrument practice. 


	2. Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gossip magazines always had fun pointing out that the members of Five Dragons lived together.

Five Dragons got their name from Jack’s guitar, a five-string he literally dug out of the trash when he was ten. He refurbished the thing by himself in a months-long process that took all his pocket change and spare time. It was at least twenty years old, painted the most tacky purple in the world, and according to Crow it still smelled like garbage thirteen years later. Jack called it The Dragon, and taught himself to play it.

He took to the park one day a year after he found it, and sat under a tree tuning it while Yusei and Crow played soccer, and that’s when they met Aki. She plunked herself down next to Jack and asked if she could try playing. Eleven years young and still awkward around girls, Jack hadn’t yet learned to say ‘No’ to one, so he handed it over. When Aki started playing, Yusei and Crow took interest and came to ask how she learned to play. They only introduced themselves an hour later, and that was when Aki punched Crow for the first time.

“My name’s Crow.”

Aki stared at him. “No it isn’t.”

“Is too!”

She socked him on the shoulder. “Quit messing with me, I bet it’s Cristopher.”

“It’s really Crow,” Jack said.

“You punched me!” Crow cried.

“I gave you a tap, woman up you big baby,” Aki said.

Crow grinned, pain forgotten. “I like her, can we ask Martha to adopt her?”

Aki punched Crow again. “No way, what makes you think I want you for a brother?!”

She was unlike any friend the boys had ever had before, and they were determined to see Aki again. She said her house was always empty, and they were welcome to come over. The boys rushed to a payphone and begged Martha for a playdate, and after talking on the phone with Aki for only a minute, Martha agreed.

The next day they went to Aki’s house, or rather mansion, and she showed them her massive collection of bass guitars. The only daughter of a billionaire, Aki could have had anything she wanted, and as the only daughter of a billionaire she was expected to be good at something upper-class. The two things collided when Aki started violin lessons at age two, and worked her way through instruments until she landed on the bass. But that didn’t stop her from collecting all kinds of instruments, which she then introduced her new friends to. Crow had always wanted to play the drums—had been a fan of anything loud that he could hit relentlessly—but he’d never been allowed a drum set of his own. Aki not only let Crow play with hers, she showed him a special room where the sound could be cut off to all those outside it, and Crow could play as loud and for as long as he wanted to. At ten years old Crow didn’t know what a recording room was, and at eleven years old Aki didn’t think it was a big deal if she recorded what Crow did in the room. She, Jack, and Yusei waited in the sound booth while Crow had his fun with the drums. It was there that Aki asked Yusei what he liked. Shyly (he didn’t talk much to boys, never mind girls) Yusei admitted that he didn’t know anything about music, but he liked electronics. So Aki showed him the synthesizer.

The friendship made on that day was the kind that people rarely get to experience, the kind that survives distance, school, and society. Yusei, Jack, and Crow lived in a large housing complex across from a train station. They went to public school, and everything they had was shared. They shared a foster mother, a single bedroom, a bicycle, and a dream that someday they could live someplace where they could run a toaster and a vacuum at the same time. Aki lived in a penthouse with a private pool, went to an exclusive private school, and never had to ask for anything because chances were she already had it.

Yusei, Crow, and Jack liked Aki because she was fun. She didn’t mind that they were loud, their pants were too short, and they didn’t have satellite TV. Ali liked Yusei, Crow, and Jack because, while they were impressed at her living situation, they didn’t treat her like a Princess. Crow blamed farts on her, Jack said her guitar-string callouses were awesome, and Yusei yammered to her for hours about how he could take apart a radio and remote control car and put them back together to make a music-playing car. So while the TV biographies and celebrity magazines said music was the foundation of their friendship, the fact was that while music brought them together, they would have kept being friends even if Aki’s music tutor hadn’t one day heard the recording of Crow’s drumming. They were friends because they liked being friends.

Aki’s music tutor was Kyosuke Kiryu, a 20 year old college student with a double major in music and business, who took on kid students to help pay for his tuition. He and Aki were the only ones who used the recording studio in her house, and he was going through the recordings Aki made of her own practices when he heard Crow’s drum practice. It was loud and chaotic, but being a fan of drums himself, Kiryu knew passion when he heard it, so he copied to 45-minute long recording on to his own flashdrive and listened to it at home. When Crow had gotten past his chaotic bout of ‘ _Oh my god I’m playing drums this is the best day ever,_ ’ Kiryu heard, dare he say it, actual talent!

So Kiryu asked Aki if she thought her friends would like to join her for a lesson one day, and when they all said yes, Kiryu got to see firsthand just what Aki’s friends could do.

 

 

For three years Kiryu guided the foursome gently in their musical passions, and then he graduated college. It would have been easy for Kiryu to become part of some huge musical-management agency, but instead he signed with an indie label and went around finding undiscovered talent.

By that time Aki, Jack, Yusei, and Crow were all in high school. Aki and Jack attended the same prep school, Jack having got in on scholarship, Yusei went to a specialized high school for science and technology, and Crow was in the local public school. After a year of studying his ass off, Crow took the Kōtō-gaku examination, passed, and dropped out. Martha was a bit disappointed, but Crow ended up working for a local auto shop, the owner of which had been a friend of Martha’s for a long time. Crow saved up his paychecks until he had enough to buy himself a drum set of his very own—a real one, brand new, not a second-hand store reject—and Aki let Crow keep it at her place.

Aki and Jack were seniors and Yusei a junior when music once more became a huge part of their lives. They were hanging out in Aki’s house when Crow suddenly said, “You know, isn’t it kind of a waste that we’ve got all this musical talent, instruments, and a recording studio, and we haven’t actually done anything about it?”

Jack was the only one to take him seriously, Yusei and Aki were quick to point out that none of them could sing. Jack and Crow fired back just as quickly that Yusei could, he sang all the time! Yusei blushed and denied it, and then Jack pointed out that in fact, wasn’t Aki a member of glee club? Aki assured him that it was just because she needed to be in a club, and it was easy for her to hide in a group of twenty singers, but after about a week of cajoling, Crow and Jack got Aki and Yusei on board with recording a cover song. They were all fans of Exile, and they settled on covering “Shooting Star.” It wasn’t exactly a rock song, but Aki swore up and down they could make it work. It was pretty fun, reworking the instrumental so it could be played on a bass, a guitar, a drumset, and a synthesizer. At Yusei and Aki’s insistence, they decided Jack would join in on the singing. At first it was hard to sing and play at the same time, but after about a month of practice the four of them agreed that they sounded pretty darn good. So they enlisted Aki’s kid cousins, Luna and Leo, to sit in the recording booth and hit the record button on the computer.

Luna and Leo were twins and nine years old. It was rare that Aki saw them, never mind Yusei, Jack, and Crow. The foursome recorded the cover twice over and weren’t satisfied, so they asked the kids if they minded sticking around for a while longer, if it wasn’t too boring. Luna and Leo responded enthusiastically.

“Are you kidding?! You guys are amazing! We’ll stay here all day if you want us to!”

Aki whispered that they were just kids, they were obviously just star-struck. After an hour they finally listened to one of their recordings, and their jaws dropped.

“Dude,” Crow said, awed, “We sound _good!_ ”

Jack was the one who most wanted to upload the video on youtube, so the others let him create the channel. They all regretted it when they saw the name he came up with.

“Five Dragons?!” Crow smacked Jack over the head. “Dude, there’s four of us!”

“I named it after The Dragon,” Jack said, rubbing his head and glaring at Crow. “But Dragon, The Dragon, Four Dragons, and The Dragons were all taken, so I picked the number five for the strings.”

“It’s fine,” Yusei said, slapping his hand over Crow’s mouth. “It’s not like anyone’s going to see it anyway, aside from Jack’s friends who have been forced to watch.”

Boy, was Yusei wrong!

The video spread like wildfire, and the band’s first gig was playing a customized cover-setlist for Aki’s friends’ birthday party. They got $3000 for it, and Aki gave it all to the boys, saying she didn’t really need it. When Jack, Yusei and Crow went home that night and stared at the cash in their hands, Jack voiced what was all on their minds.

“If we do this right, we could get out of here.”

Crow was on board, but Yusei wasn’t sure. He knew that they had a high potential for failure, and he wanted to be a scientist. He went to bed totally against the idea, but video from the party was posted online, and while there were haters, there were a lot of people who thought they were good. And Yusei came home one day and looked around the apartment, at the water-stained ceiling, at the ratty sofa, the tub that had mold growing in the tile no matter how many times Martha treated it with bleach. And Yusei looked at Martha, the only mother he’d ever known, and he thought about how much she’d done for him, when he wasn’t even her real son, when all the thanks she got was a measly paycheck from social services that barely covered the rent, and he thought about all the time she put in at her own job—a housekeeper for people who barely paid attention to her.

Yusei went to Jack and Crow and made them sit down and make a promise.

“I don’t want us to do this for anything like fame, or girls, or vanity. I want this to be for Martha.”

That hit home for all of them. They hadn’t spent any of the money they earned for the birthday performance, and they agreed right then and there they were giving it to Martha.

In the meantime, Aki had gotten an email from Kiryu. He’d seen their videos and he knew that people wanted to see them. He wanted to meet with them, and their parents. Aki told the boys, and Martha agreed to the meeting.

Aki’s parents were world travelers, but her father made it to the meeting. It was the first time any of the boys had really seen him for more than a few minutes at a time, and they were a bit intimidated by him. He was polite, but aloof. He did listen intently to what Kiryu had to say, as did Martha. The agency Kiryu worked for wasn’t top notch, but they could get Five Dragons connected to a lyricist, a few composers, and get them hooked up with more performances. Small time stuff, local festivals, private parties and the like.

The four of them wanted to go for it. Martha’s stipulation was that it couldn’t be on a school night. Aki’s dad only asked her if she wanted it. A few weeks later, a contract was signed. Yusei wanted to graduate high school before they took on any really big contracts or responsibilities, but a year after signing with the indie label, the group recorded an EP of original songs. Soon, Jack and Aki were writing lyrics, Crow was composing, and Yusei was lending a hand to both writing and composing. When Yusei graduated high school and their contract with the indie label was up, Kiryu connected them to a label that could give them more. They asked Kiryu to be their manager, but he said he was better at helping kids like them, who had talented and needed a helping hand, so he wished them well and said he’d be around if they ever needed a hand. When asked if they wanted to change the name of their group, the foursome admitted that they simply couldn’t think of any other name, and besides, they’d gotten used to being called Five Dragons.

The rest is, as they say, history.

 

 

The gossip magazines always had fun pointing out that the members of Five Dragons lived together. Of course their apartment was huge, and they each had their own bedroom and bathroom, but the media made it a big deal. In the beginning, when they moved into their first apartment, the four of them lived together because it was just easier that way. Their only mode of transportation was an older model sedan they bought from Aki’s family’s gardener. They split rent, food, utilities, and gas payments. They shared household duties. And they came to realize that they _liked_ living together. Aki had never had housemates, not ones that didn’t work for her, and she liked that their apartment felt lived in.

And while Jack, Crow, and Yusei got on each other’s nerves the way no one else could, they also realized that they simply didn’t know how to live without one another. They had leaned on each other for so long that everything they did was second nature. Crow left the milk out and Jack put it away, Yusei made shopping lists, Crow actually went shopping. Crow hated mess and was the only one who actually put effort into keeping spaces clean. Jack took pride in his clothes and did laundry on a regular basis, and he washed Yusei and Crow’s clothes because he knew they’d wear the same shirt for a week if no one told them they stank. Yusei didn’t like eating cereal three times a day and had gotten good at cooking, unlike Crow and Jack who let toast burn. No matter how many times they threatened to move out, in truth they couldn’t imagine being apart from each other.

Even when the big paychecks started coming in and they had the opportunity to move up, they decided to stay together.

“Why fix what’s not broke?” Crow asked as the real estate agent asked if they were sure they wanted to stay together.

Martha moved into the group’s old apartment. She refused a bigger one, because she didn’t need the space, but at least this one was newer, and in better shape. All of them, Aki included, made sure her rent was paid each month, and they regularly deposited money into the bank account they set up for her. Martha was able to retire, and she became an after school tutor for kids in the area.

The foursome still split their living costs. But they weren’t big spenders. Jack, Crow, and Yusei, despite the fact that they had things they wanted, were still thrifty after years of learning to pinch pennies. Jack was probably the biggest spender out of all of them, and a lot of people expected him to be the type to wear something once and throw it out, but while he had expensive taste, he wasn’t wasteful. Even Aki, who had grown up with everything she wanted, didn’t buy a lot of things. Her upbringing could have spoiled her, but instead it had actually made her a bit bored with materialism. She didn’t get a thrill from new things, unless it was a new guitar, and even then her new guitars were usually older models.

They all had one thing that they had splurged on, and that was their motorcycles because, as Martha put it, they were all “Rebels with a death wish.” Aki and Crow had always wanted motorcycles, and when Jack tagged along on one of their shopping trips he found one he couldn’t say no to. And Yusei, ever the techie, found one at a garage sale that he fixed up and made his own. But, they still only had one car. Mostly because they only used it for shopping and they all had their bikes, so they couldn’t see spending money on more than one car.

In every interview, someone would inevitably ask if living together had caused any awkward situations. None of them had ever answered that question truthfully. Well, they said no, which was the truth, but only part of it. They had been friends for thirteen years, since ages ten and eleven. There wasn’t anything they could possibly do that was awkward anymore. Especially not when Aki had, at least once a week for the past eight years, shouted at the top of her lungs that her boobs were in her way. She had been well endowed since age thirteen, and she hated every minute of it. Partially for the attention it got, mostly because really, they were in her way.

The first time she said anything about it outside the privacy of her own house, they had been standing in the company practice room, going over their setlist. Aki looked down and sighed, “I can’t see my strings around my tits.”

Their sound crew was horrified. Crow got up from his drumset, walked over, and hooked his chin over Aki’s shoulder.

“My god, you’re right,” he said thoughtfully.

The sound crew was even more horrified. Crow straightened up and asked, “So what should be done about it?”

Aki shrugged. “Search me, they’re not balloons, I can’t deflate ‘em.”

At that point Saiga had stepped in and told them to get back to practice. To Jack, Yusei, and Crow, Aki hadn’t said anything worth being worked up over. To them, it was a conversation that happened regularly.

 

 

Once, the foursome had been at a party for a label mate. When Aki was out of earshot, one of the guests made a remark to the boys about her being difficult to live with during her time of the month. Jack, who had spent most of high school helping Aki beat up anyone who tried to grope her, was the first to react.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no, it doesn’t.”

He would have been perfectly content to leave it at that, but the guest went on to ask if Aki was on the pill or something. That was when Jack punched him in the face and told him it wasn’t his place to speculate about things that had nothing to do with him. The guest tried to punch back, and that’s when Yusei and Crow got the guy in his pressure points. He was subsequently ejected from the party. Sadly, it was far from the last time the boys would get comments about the subject.

Most of the time, Aki didn’t let it bother her. But there was an instance when they were promoting an album and a reporter asked about a recent project she had been part of to promote breast cancer research.

“Aki said she considered getting a breast reduction surgery. What do the boys have to say about that?”

Yusei had grabbed Jack’s mic before he could start shouting and answered, calmly but coldly, “We think that it’s Aki’s choice and have nothing to say about it, because it has absolutely nothing to do with us. Just like everything else relating to Aki’s choices about her own body. We are happy to give support to our friend if she chooses to undergo a medical procedure.”

There had been a round of applause from the fans present, and Crow grabbed the mic and asked sarcastically, “Hey Aki, I’m thinking of getting a vasectomy, what do you have to say about that?”

And Aki answered, “I think it’s your choice Crow, but I’m happy to offer you support if you undergo a medical procedure.”

 

 

Aki wasn’t the only one with a body that changed over the years, or did embarrassing things. Sometimes, when she was particularly bothered by it, the boys did things to cheer her up. One such thing was a video they uploaded to youtube. It was called, “If Men Were Interviewed the Way Women Are.”

In it, Aki pretended to be a reporter. Yusei, Jack, and Crow sat at their kitchen table, and the video cut between them and Aki.

“Mister Atlas!” Aki shouted, “Have you ever gotten aroused while onstage?”

To which Jack answered, “Just between you and me, I have to wear this special kind of underwear just so it doesn’t become a problem! It’s soooo distracting, I wonder how I focus!”

Aki continued, “Mister Hogan, the world wants to know, how do you prevent wardrobe malfunctions?”

Crow answered with a smirk, “Oh it’s so naughty, but I don’t do anything actually. Gotta give the fans what they want, you know? A little nip-slip never hurt anyone.”

And finally she asked, “Mister Fudo, how do you possibly concentrate when you’re surrounded by three hot people?”

And Yusei answered, dead serious, “I don’t, I’m constantly fantasizing about each and every one of them.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is where the romance comes in.
> 
> Kōtō-gaku is a real thing, I’m just not sure if that’s the actual nickname for it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_for_Students_Achieving_the_Proficiency_Level_of_Upper_Secondary_School_Graduates


	3. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here there be kissing

Aki, Yusei, Crow, and Jack spent so much time together, it was normal for them to dream about each other. And it was expected that sometimes, they would feature in those dreams as any number of things—vampires, serial killers, teachers, porn stars. Oh yeah, that happened between Yusei, Jack, and Crow, too. The three of them had always had an unconventional relationship. They shared a mom, but they weren’t brothers. Not in the traditional way. They had never liked being described as brothers, even Martha didn’t say things like, “Be nicer to your brother.” They didn’t even really think of each other as family. To them, family was mom, dad, brother, sister. And as already established, they weren’t brothers.

“What the heck are we?” Crow asked once. It was 2 AM, they were on the tour bus, driving back to Tokyo from Kyoto. They were sitting around the dining table, heads pillowed on their arms. During a fan event earlier in the day, they had been asked if they’d had their first kiss. Each had answered yes, and the MC asked if any of them had their first kiss with each other. The audience screamed, and it was all fan-service, when they just smiled mysteriously, but the answer was no. The more honest answer was no, but we’ve thought about kissing each other.

“We’re friends,” Aki muttered.

“That’s it?” Crow asked.

“Does there have to be more?” Jack asked.

Crow lifted his head slightly and looked around at all of them. Crow grew up in a few foster homes, and he lived with all sorts of people. He was lucky in a way, he was always told to be true to himself, and nobody ever told him that there was anything wrong with liking boys. When he was a teenager, he identified himself as bisexual. And he had a massive crush on Yusei, but he never said anything about it. He was terrified that people would think something was wrong with him. To him, Yusei wasn’t his brother, but to the rest of the world, they lived together and shared a room, and they were as good as brothers. Who was Crow supposed to talk to about that?

Now that he was older, he was seeing things he liked in Jack and Aki, too. Jack annoyed the crap out of him sometimes, but Jack was honest, and he held himself to a high standard of morality. He didn’t like broadcasting his feelings, sometimes he could be hilariously stoic, but he was kind hearted, and those who knew him could always see the way he cared for others. And Aki…Crow had never met anyone like her. She shattered stereotypes people tried to throw at her, but she didn’t do it on purpose. Crow knew she could have grown up vastly different from how she did, and even though she had advantages that Crow, Jack, and Yusei didn’t have, they also had things Aki didn’t have. Rather than be jealous of each other, they seemed to fill in the things that were missing. Crow saw a lot of similarities between himself and Aki. They both had a wild streak, and were frequently misunderstood for it. They had a ‘devil may care’ attitude, but that didn’t mean they didn’t still hurt. Sometimes Crow thought he bonded with Aki over that stuff more than he did Jack and Yusei. But he didn’t just want to share the hurt with her.

Out loud, Crow said, “I’m having deep thoughts over here, dudes. Maybe too deep.”

Yusei patted Crow’s head. “We can talk in the morning.”

Morning arrived. Well, afternoon arrived. Nobody was up before noon after a concert. Crow was the third one up, after Yusei and Jack. Jack was on his laptop, Yusei was tinkering with an old alarm clock. Crow was halfway through his coffee when Aki came out of her room. Crow always thought there were two times Aki looked most beautiful—the first was on stage, the second was after she woke up, and that was really cheesy, but it was because she was real. On stage, she was so happy. In the morning, before she’d gotten dressed and put on whatever persona she wanted to have that day, she was just Aki, the Aki that Crow kind of, really wanted to kiss. Though maybe after she’d brushed her teeth, he wouldn’t even kiss Yusei with morning breath.

Aki sat at the kitchen table, across from Crow, took a sip of coffee, and looked at Crow. “Okay, so what’s this deep thought you had last night?”

Crow sighed. Of course she remembered.

Jack closed his laptop and sat on Crow’s left. Yusei put down his clock and sat on Crow’s right. Crow frowned, not liking the serious atmosphere. Seriousness made him feel queasy.

“It’s gonna sound crude,” Crow said, “But saying it any other way would take too long, so I’ll spit it out first and explain later. Have you guys ever thought about making out with each other? Like, all of us.” He paused. “Well not like, four at a time but, every conceivable way we could possibly pair off and make out with each other.”

Aki looked at Crow with raised eyebrows. “You serious?”

Crow nodded and set his coffee cup down so it wouldn’t show how badly his hands were shaking. “I’m about to puke that’s how serious I am.”

Jack was frowning, but not in an angry way. “I think I read a fanfic about that once.”

Crow kicked his shin. “I’m being serious here, Jack Ass-las.”

Jack kicked him back. “Yeah, I wasn’t sayin’ it to make fun. I said it so you wouldn’t puke.”

“Yes,” said Yusei.

Crow whipped his head towards Yusei. He was blushing, but he looked around at each of them. “I have.”

“Me, too,” Aki said.

Crow sat on his hands so he wouldn’t flap them out of nervousness. “Yeah? So what did you think about it?” Yusei looked confused, and Crow elaborated, “Like, did you think it would be a good idea?”

“Whoa now,” Jack interrupted, “A good idea to do what? Play like, spin the bottle, or…?” He trailed off suggestively.

“Both,” Aki said. “Spin the bottle, and ‘or.’”

“Or?” Yusei asked.

“I just said kiss,” Crow sputtered, “I haven’t even gotten to the emotional part of it, I was just thinkin’ like, there’s things I like about all of you and, I don’t know, I wondered if I was alone in thinking that sometimes a kiss would be…nice.”

Aki nodded. “Well yeah, I had those thoughts too. About some more than others.”

“Same,” Yusei said.

They all looked at Jack.

“Well, sometimes,” Jack said. “But, I don’t know.”

Crow cleared his throat. “Well, we don’t have to, you know, do anything about it, I was just wondering if I was alone in those thoughts. Guess I’m not.”

“Guess not,” Aki said. “And now it’s out there in the open. We’ve all wondered what it would be like to kiss each other.”

There was a moment in which the suspense was so strong it was like a blanket pressing over them. Then Yusei got up and went back to his alarm clock. Jack went back to his computer. Aki finished her coffee. Crow dumped his, he didn’t need the caffeine anymore.

 

But that wasn’t the end of it, of course not. What was surprising was that it was Jack, who had seemed the most reluctant, who figured out how to make it work.

The next day Jack marched into the living room with a paper bag and four pieces of paper. “Gather ‘round,” he called, “We’re playing seven minutes in heaven.”

The other three stared at him in shock, and he sighed, “Look, I know none of us can stop thinking about it, so this seemed like the best way to make it happen. So we can say we tried it and take it from there. Names go on the paper, someone draws a name. Redraw if you get your own or, later, someone you already kissed. They get seven minutes in the bathroom because I’m not doing this in a closet. Kiss, talk, whatever, but you get seven minutes.”

Aki put her lyric notebook aside. “Sounds good to me.”

“I’m in,” said Crow.

“Me, too,” said Yusei.

Jack wrote their names on the papers, crumpled them up, and put them in the bag. He shook it, and then volunteered to go first. He drew Aki’s name.

Crow took out his phone. “I’ll start the timer when I hear the door close.”

Jack nodded, and held out his hand to Aki. She took it, and they left.

 

“Do you want to kiss me?”

Jack shrugged. “Do you want to kiss me?”

Aki rolled her eyes. “I asked you first.”

Jack shrugged again. “I…if you asked me three years ago, I would have said no. Now I don’t know.”

Aki was puzzled. “Three years…high school?”

“I didn’t want to be like those jerks that harassed you.”

Aki grinned widely. “You never could be. I’ve never thought of you as being like them.”

Jack relaxed, he even smiled. “Okay. So now it’s your turn. Do you want to kiss me?”

Aki nodded. She went up on her toes and pressed her lips to Jack’s. They exchanged slow, chaste kisses for a few minutes, then Jack’s neck began to hurt from being bent. He straightened up with a frown. “Geez, you’re short.”

Aki flicked his forehead. “I’m average. You’re a giant.”

 

Since Jack pulled out her name, Aki picked a name next. Her own and Jack’s papers were still out of the bag, so she picked from the two. She picked Yusei. She seemed almost smug as she helped Yusei to his feet.

 

Yusei was almost unbearably sweet. He put his hands on Aki’s hips and drew her close when they kissed, and he sucked softly on her bottom lip when she paused to take a breath. Aki ran her fingers through Yusei’s hair and pulled him closer, brushing her tongue over his. They didn’t stop until Crow yelled that time was up.

“We should do that again,” Yusei said before they left.

 

Yusei drew next. He drew Crow’s name. Crow’s stomach flip flopped but he couldn’t hold back an elated grin.

 

When the door closed behind them it was like a floodgate opened up in Crow’s brain, and he started yammering.

“I’ve wanted to do this with you for the longest, out of the three of you. I mean since like, high school,” Crow babbled, staring at Yusei’s lips. They were red. He wondered if Yusei would rather kiss Aki. “You, um, yeah, and I just…kinda…”

“Crow? Maybe you should kiss me now.”

Crow grabbed Yusei’s shoulders and leaned in, his heart pounding. Yusei closed his eyes, and as soon as their lips touched, Crow closed his eyes too. Yusei took a step forward and Crow’s back hit the door. Yusei took Crow’s hands from his shoulders and linked their fingers. Crow lost track of time. When Jack hammered on the door, he accidentally bit Yusei’s lip. Yusei gasped and pulled back, eyes dark.

“That was fun,” Yusei said.

Crow thought he was royally fucked.

 

When Crow drew Aki’s name, he couldn’t decide if the universe loved him or hated him.

 

“Yusei’s a good kisser,” Aki said when the door closed.

“He is,” Crow said, tensing.

Aki looked Crow over thoughtfully. “Very sweet. So was Jack. With me. I have a feeling you know how to be…not so sweet.”

Crow grinned and relaxed. He put his hands on Aki’s shoulders and pressed her against the wall. He knelt and put his hands around her thighs. They were of equal height, but Aki had always been very slim, very lightweight. Crow didn’t have a problem lifting her. He hitched her thighs around his hips and leaned forward.

Aki kept her hands on Crow’s jaw, keeping him close. He could smell Yusei’s aftershave on her, and underneath that the rose perfume she always wore. The combination made him lightheaded, and he gripped her thighs tightly. She gasped sharply and he thought he heard a whimper. Crow wondered what it would be like to have Yusei and Jack watch this.

“Time’s up!” Yusei and Jack yelled.

Crow set Aki down. She grinned wickedly at him, cheeks flushed.

“I’m so fucked,” Crow said out loud.

Aki laughed so hard she gave herself hiccups.

 

“Aki’s already drawn all our names,” Yusei said, “So Crow should draw next, but we all know it’s just Jack he has to kiss. Then it’s me and Jack.”

So Crow got his kisses all in a row.

Jack stood up. “After you,” he said.

“Such a gentleman,” Crow said, batting his eyelashes. Jack punched him in the shoulder.

 

Crow shut the door and turned around. Almost right away, Jack’s thumb was against his lower lip.

“Did you and Aki maul each other?” Jack asked, and there was a hint of a frown on his face.

“Not every kiss has to be sweet,” Crow said. “Aki said so herself.” Jack’s thumb was still on his mouth. Crow jerked his head down and bit the tip of Jack’s thumb.

“Ow,” Jack said, jerking back. “Jerk. Short jerk.”

Crow grabbed Jack’s collar and hauled him down. “I’m in so much pain,” he said sarcastically.

Rather than kiss Crow, Jack leaned down further and pressed his lips against Crow’s throat. Crow tipped his head back, and Jack stepped closer, mouthing his way up to Crow’s jaw, and finally to his mouth. Jack’s teeth scraped Crow’s lip, and Crow sighed happily. He could get used to this.

Aki was the one who told them that time was up, and as soon as they opened the door, she shoved Yusei in and hauled Crow out.

 

Yusei staggered back against the door as soon as it closed, looking up at Jack in surprise, like he didn’t quite know how he got there.

“Did Aki kidnap you?” Jack asked.

“I think so,” Yusei said. “She said I was thinking too much.”

“About what?” Jack asked.

“Less talking more kissing!” Aki yelled from the other side of the door. “Talk later!”

Yusei, in a flash of insolence he rarely displayed, slammed his hand against the door and moaned, “Oh god, yes, Jack, oh my god!”

Aki squealed with laughter, and Jack felt like someone had put a hook in his stomach and jerked it upwards. It had been a while since he’d had that reaction. He leaned forward and kissed Yusei just as he gasped theatrically. Yusei stopped mid-gasp and groaned softly when Jack licked right into his mouth. Jack dropped his hand to Yusei’s stomach, swirling his finger lightly around Yusei’s naval. Yusei shivered and moaned for real this time. Jack grinned, he remembered correctly—Yusei did have a sensitive stomach.

This time, rather than shout that time was up, Aki simply opened the door. Jack had enough of his wits about him to grab Yusei and pull him away from the door when he heard the knob twist. He and Yusei pulled apart as the door opened, and met Aki’s wicked grin and Crow’s sheepish look with flushed faces.

“So what now?” Yusei asked.

Aki shrugged. “We could see how we work like this.”

“Like what?” Jack asked.

“Like the four of us as we usually are,” Aki said, “But this time with kissing.”

“Just like that?” Yusei asked.

“No jealousy, no strings,” Aki said. “I don’t care if it’s in the kitchen, if it’s behind closed doors, but I think we should keep it between us.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I like the idea,” Jack said.

“I can get behind it,” Crow said.

Yusei nodded. “Same.”

“Then we’re in agreement,” Aki said. “I bet it won’t really change anything.”

She was half right. Some things really didn’t change, like their feelings for each other. They were lucky in a way, that for the moment, they didn’t have to worry about jealousy and they could just enjoy what they had. Romance had developed slowly, but it had been present for a while, and each of them had dealt, in their own way, with what that meant for each of them.

 

 

But some things did change. The first time Crow greeted Aki with a good morning kiss, she dropped her coffee cup in shock. She blushed and apologized, and all the boys assured her that it was just a small mess. Crow thought it was kind of funny, and he wished he had a camera to capture her face when he kissed her.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” Crow said. “You’re really beautiful first thing in the morning. Don’t know how to explain it.”

Aki sputtered, blushing again. “That’s just about the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” Then she muttered, “But it’s also very sweet.”

“And very true,” Yusei said.

Crow shoved Yusei lightly. “Hey, I’m flirting with Aki right now, wait your turn!”

“Nobody said anything about turns!” Jack said.

“I was joking,” Crow said.

Jack spoke as if he hadn’t heard, but there was a glimmer of mirth in his eyes when he said, “In that case, I call Yusei when he gets out of the shower.”

It was Yusei’s turn to blush, and Aki and Crow both wolf-whistled at the same time.

“Jack, you devil!” Aki laughed, “I can’t believe you beat me to that!”

Of course, it was all in jest. There was no dibs, no whiteboard with time slots or check marks, but over a period of a few months, the four of them fell into a sort of routine. Crow and Aki usually did something together in the mornings. Every now and then Jack and Yusei would disappear to Yusei’s room. Yusei and Aki usually cuddled on the sofa in the evenings, sometimes Crow would have to tell them to take it somewhere else so he could watch his soap operas in peace. And sometimes Crow would wake up in the middle of the night because Yusei was climbing into his bed. Crow would roll over, burrow into Yusei’s chest, and fall back asleep.

He confessed to Yusei once, “I used to say I’d never kiss anyone before they brushed their teeth.”

Yusei grinned sleepily at him and kissed the tip of his nose. “I chew gum in my sleep.”

“I knew it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next part is the epilogue and flashes back to present day and takes place almost directly after the prologue


	4. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Towards the future we go!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics are flashbacks, all recent—they take place before the Tokyo Dome concert

Epilogue - Present Day

 

The day after their Tokyo Dome concert, everyone sleeps for a solid twelve hours. They didn’t get to bed until almost 5 AM, so it’s evening when they wake up. Aki is the first one to wake up, and she goes to the kitchen, makes herself some soothing tea, and sits at the counter to browse the fansites. Jack is next to wake up. He nods to Aki and goes straight to his laptop, parked at the kitchen table, to do the same thing Aki just did. Yusei wakes up only a few minutes after Jack. He spots Aki and grins at her, blowing her a kiss. Aki sends one right back and Yusei winks at her as he makes himself at home in Jack’s lap.

“What the—get off,” Jack says grumpily, though he makes no move to actually get Yusei away from him.

Yusei leans his head against Jack’s neck and says, “I want to see what the news is, too. I might as well save energy and look with you rather than turn on another computer. Besides, I didn’t go to you last night, didn’t you miss me?”

Jack sputters that one night alone wouldn’t make him miss anyone, but Aki can see his blush, and the way he curls one hand around Yusei’s hip.

Crow stumbles into the kitchen a few minutes past seven. He makes a beeline for Aki, gives her a kiss, and asks how her throat feels.

“Like sandpaper,” Aki says, but she doesn’t sound hoarse, which is good. “I should send my new vocal coach some flowers, those tricks she taught me saved my voice. Still going to take it easy for a while.”

“And the fans are appreciating it, too,” Jack adds. Yusei is still on his lap, leaning on his shoulder, eyes closed. Jack looks up from his computer with a grin. “No one can believe we came back on stage seven times.”

“ _I_ can’t believe it,” Yusei sighs, opening his eyes and stretching his arms over his head. “God, I’m so tired.”

Crow crosses the room and ruffles Yusei’s hair. “Well, we’re on vacation now. No one says we can’t go to sleep again in six hours. Or less.”

Jack snorts. “Definitely less for you. I bet you’ll be asleep again in two hours.”

Crow sticks his tongue out at Jack. “You’d be tired too if you spent all night banging things.”

Aki chokes on her tea as she starts to laugh, and Crow positively screeches with laughter, pointing at Jack’s face. “I wish I had a camera! You look ridiculous!”

Jack tries to cover his look of shock with a scoff. “It’s not my fault that you make everything sound dirty. You’re such a child, Crow.”

In the end, Jack has the last laugh when 45 minutes later, he posts on Instagram a picture of Crow passed out at the kitchen table, his hand still wrapped around his coffee mug.

 

When the group announced their planned hiatus after their biggest concert ever, some asked if it was wise to get to the top and stop. The group’s response was they weren’t stopping, they were taking a moment to breathe and enjoy the fruits of their hard work.

They plan to halt music promotion for at least three months. In that time, they will work on other things. Collaborations, surprise releases for free on their website, vlogs—they want to take some time to spread their wings. They have some songs that need tuning before they can be released, and they want to direct their own music video and coordinate their own outfits for their next comeback, so they need to prepare for that. Even before all that happens, there are other things to do.

Jack is taking part in two upcoming movies—one live action, one animated. In the live-action film he won’t be on screen for more than a few minutes, but it’s a step toward the acting career he’s been itching for, and filming starts in a week. He’ll be on set for ten days in the Fukuoka prefecture. A week after he returns he’ll start meeting with a senior seiyū to get some tips for his first voice acting job. After that, he thinks he’ll go back to writing music (at least until the acting contracts start coming in).

 

 

_Yusei and Jack are snuggling. Yusei is the little spoon, and he looks over his shoulder and asks Jack, “You’re not going to forget about us when you become an actor, are you?”_

_There’s no hint of insecurity in his voice, or expression. He stares at Jack with a gaze clear and strong enough to see straight through any BS Jack may potentially throw at him._

_But Jack has no plans for BS. “I won’t forget you, any of you. But Yusei, we can’t be singers forever. Will you forget about us when you finally get your master’s degree in physics?”_

 

 

Yusei has been accepted to a four week study program through Tokyo University, he’s leaving in five days for the campus, since it’s easier for him to dorm. He’ll be working in the University’s scientific research lab, and it’s a great honor for him to have been considered, let alone accepted. Yusei doesn’t fit the typical mold of a scientist, but the University saw his passion and considered his achievements, and Yusei knows he can prove to any doubters that he has what it takes to contribute to the scientific community. This is something he’s been wanting since he was a child.

 

 

_Yusei grins at Jack and rolls over, snuggling into Jack’s chest. “No, I won’t. But all plans for that depend on how I do in this program.”_

_“You’ll kick ass and we all know it,” Jack grumbles.  “Anyone who says otherwise can go eat Crow’s drumsticks.” Yusei snorts and Jack blushes. “Shut up, I didn’t mean it like that.”_

_“I love your faith in me,” Yusei says. “And you’re right, we can’t be singers forever, but I’m not ready to give up on it just yet.”_

_“Neither am I,” Jack says, kissing the top of Yusei’s head._

 

 

Crow has signed a modeling contract. He has a bunch of photoshoots and even some runway shows in the works. Before that, he’s getting his wisdom teeth removed. It’s something he isn’t looking forward to, but something that needs to be done. The fridge is stocked with ice cream and yogurt, and the date is circled on the calendar, a week after their concert. He’ll have a three week recovery period, then he’ll be off to Paris for his first photoshoot.

 

 

_For all their bickering, Jack and Crow can get along pretty well when they want to. Jack and Aki both took French in high school, but Jack is the one who threw himself into teaching Crow some key phrases when Crow announced that he would be going to Paris. Aki watches them as they work, sitting close together, Crow staring at Jack’s mouth as he sounds out the words slowly and carefully. There’s no bickering, no sighing, no eye-rolling. They can be quite cute together when they’re being nice._

_And when Crow starts to get worried about getting his teeth out, Aki is the one to comfort him. She had hers removed last year and promises him that it’s nothing to worry about._

_“And if you want, I’ll be happy to go with you,” Aki promises._

_“Really?” Crow asks. “You won’t like, record me coming off of anesthesia and post it online, will you?”_

_Aki grins and holds up her hand. “I’ll pinky promise not to record it.”_

_Crow laughs. “‘Pinky promise?’ What are we, three? We’re sealing it with a kiss.”_

 

 

The person with the biggest plan is Aki, who is finally getting the breast reduction surgery she’s been wanting since age fifteen. Aside from the fact that her boobs really do get in her way when she plays bass, the weight is wreaking havoc on her back, and a few of her relatives have been diagnosed with breast cancer, so she knows she has a hereditary risk for it. The reduction will hopefully decrease her chances of getting cancerous tumors in the future. She’ll need time to recover from it, at least two weeks before she goes back to even wearing the over-the-shoulder strap for her bass. She has no plans for school, or promotional work. Her only focus is on her recovery. Once she feels up for it, she’s going to book a flight to Hawaii to see her parents. They’ve promised to take a week off from work when she comes to visit.

 

 

_“My surgery is three days after yours,” Aki tells Crow. “I’m sure you’ll be feeling better by then, but we can totally be couch potatoes together. Drama marathon sound good to you?”_

_Crow nods. “Being a couch potato sounds good any day of the week but if it’s with you, it’s almost worth getting my teeth yanked from my jaw.” He looks at Aki thoughtfully. “Are you nervous?”_

_“Of course,” Aki says, “I mean, what if I finally get it done and I hate it? Or worse, what if I get cancer anyway?” She knows she’ll have scars, and she knows nothing is guaranteed. It’s an awfully big procedure to be undergoing, with so much risk involved._

_Crow takes Aki’s hand and kisses her palm. “I’ve got your back. Me, Jack, and Yusei, we all have your back, no matter what happens. I don’t know what the future holds but whatever it is, we’ll be here for you when you need us.”_

_Aki feels tears start to sting her eyes and tries to laugh them off. “That’s so sweet,” She says, her voice breaking._

_Crow hugs her and kisses her cheek. “And I mean every word.”_

 

 

When Crow finally wakes up from his post-concert coma, he posts a message on the group’s webpage.

 

 

**Nice Instagram post, Jack. I’ll get you back for it but first, we’ve got big plans to take care of. It’s time to head off for a new adventure, one that’s not just about music and more about expanding our horizons. I want to take this time to thank our fans and promise you guys that music is still part of our lives and will be for a while. I hope you’ll stick around with us to see it.**

**Here’s hoping for a bright future for team 5D’s!**

**Author's Note:**

> I happened to read a very awesome 5Ds band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4345901/chapters/9856991) while I was in the process of writing this, I'm sure most everyone who's reading this has already read that, but if you haven't then please do read because it's awesome.
> 
> My working summary for this was "Aki hates her boobs and Crow needs to learn how to handle a drumstick, does anyone in the band actually make music?" Boobs and drumsticks ended up having a lot less to do with the story in the long run. I guess the title has little to do with it too, but I'm keeping it because whenever I watch a YGO series I skip the card games, since I'm here for the PLOT, damnit!! C'est la vie.


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